A proposal to freeze the Tennessee's beer tax has been signed by Gov. Bill Haslam.
Tennessee’s beer taxes outstrip any other state's because the bulk of the levy is based on price rather than volume. The more a beer costs, the higher the taxes when buying it.
In Tennessee, brewers pay federal and state taxes per 31-gallon barrel, and then a 17 percent tax is charged to wholesalers based on price. Consumers then pay as much as 9.75 percent in sales taxes on top of the previous charges.
The proposal converts the 17 percent tax to a flat tax in line with the current rate. The House approved the measure 87-2, and it passed the Senate 30-1.
